At Noblesville High School, student journalists were discouraged. They had tried for weeks to get a story about teen drug abuse published in the school newspaper without success. Administrators didn't like the story, but students couldn't understand why. At Columbus North High School, it was a different story. The newspaper staff, with the approval of the principal, was able to publish a sensitive, well-researched story about the realities of oral sex among teens.

A proposed federal law would prohibit schools and libraries from allowing access to social networking Web sites or chat rooms. It was introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) in May. The Deleting Online Predators Act would require public schools and libraries to bar minors from "commercial social networking Web sites" and "chat rooms," such as MySpace and Faceboo